1. Shoot your subject at different focal lengths

using the zoom on your photos will not only change how close your subject appears but it will also change the depth of field (ie the blurring of the background). It also allows you to shoot from different distances which can really impact how relaxed your subject is (there’s nothing better than a photographer in your face to make you tense up!)

2. Shoot your subject from different angle

it’s amazing how much you can change a shot by getting on your knees or taking a few steps to the side!

3. Shoot using different formats

there are different ways to grip a digital camera. The two main ones are horizontally or vertically but you can also get into all kinds of diagonal ways to do it. Mix it up.

4. Avoid the Group Shot Blink

When photographing people try to take multiple shots, especially group photos when someone is always bound to be blinking

5. Use continuous exposure modes

most digital cameras these days will have a mode that allows you to shoot multiple frames quickly. So instead of taking one shot at a time you can take multiple ones by simply holding the shutter longer. This can be very effective at capturing people in that second after they post (quite often when they are looking a little more themselves).

6. Move your Subject around

If it’s appropriate move your subject around. The pictures at the top of this post are from a session of photo I took of my brother. I love the series because it puts him in a variety of poses in quick succession (we shot 50 or so shots all in 10 minutes). They make a great series.

7. Try Exposure Bracketing

this is a technique that Pro photographers use to make sure they get the perfect exposure. Some cameras have a built in bracketing function but with others you’ll need to do it manually. The basic principle of it is to take numerous shots in a row and purposely shooting them at a variety of exposures. Start with under exposing them and gradually dial up your exposure levels until your last shot is over exposed. I’ll write a tutorial on this at some point in the future but in the mean time hit your digital camera’s instruction book to see if they have a way to do it automatically.

8. Experiment with different ‘modes’

even the most basic point and shoot cameras have different ’shooting modes’. These are usually things like ‘portrait’, ‘landscape’, ’sports’, ‘night’ etc. Sometimes it’s worth flicking through these to take shots at different settings. What these modes do is simply change the basic settings (like aperture, shutter speed, ISO) – all things that can change the look and feel of your shot considerably.

9. Play with your flash

try turning your flash off or forcing it to fire in shots. Sometimes adding flash to a scene where there’s lots of light behind your subject is essential (even though your camera might not think it needs it). This stops those silhouette shots where it looks like you’re trying to hide the identity your subject.

10. Tell a story

rather than trying to sum up a whole occasion in one shot think of the shots you take as an opportunity to tell a story. I sometimes have the sequence of shots in mind as I’m doing a shoot – look for a beginning shot, a middle shot and an end one. It’s almost like a movie but with still shots.

One last tip

when it comes to shooting lots of images – take note of what you’re doing. One of the problems with shooting lots of shots at different exposures and in different modes and settings is that you get home to your computer and find a brilliant shot but can’t remember how you did it. Many cameras will store your settings in the images for you to look at later but I find it is sometimes helpful to even jot down what I do as I take images or at least to make a special mental note of what I’m doing as I go so that I can reproduce the types of shots in future.

Photographs taken with film fade with age, and even negatives yellow and become brittle. Digital photos, on the other hand, retain the same brilliant color and clarity every time you pull them up on the computer screen—until your hard disk crashes and you instantly lose every photo you’ve ever taken.

Yes, digital photography has its share of disasters, and that leads some people to distrust it, or even to claim that film lasts longer than digital. But the good news is that your digital pictures can last forever if you take good care of them. Here are 10 rules to follow to make sure you don’t lose pictures to a digital catastrophe:

1. Use a quality memory card

Start with the “film” your pictures are stored on: the memory card. While the cheap memory cards offer a huge capacity for a small price, it’s best to pay a bit more and get a quality card. A card from a good manufacturer will have less risk of data corruption or other failures. Sandisk, Lexar, and Kingston are good choices.

• Tip: Buy two smaller cards instead of one larger one: for example, two 1GB cards instead of one 2GB card. This will often save you money, and you’ll also have a hedge against data loss—one corrupt card will only affect half of your photos.

2. Get those photos off that memory card

You might have a huge memory card in your camera that can store thousands of photos, but you should still consider the memory card temporary storage—a memory card can fail, or can be lost or stolen with the camera. Whenever you finish taking a batch of pictures or return from a trip, use a card reader or USB cable to transfer the pictures to the computer.

3. Don’t delete photos in the camera

Your camera probably has a convenient “Delete” or “Trash” button. I suggest you never use it. There are three reasons for this:

• You avoid accidentally deleting the wrong picture, or accidentally using the “delete all” option.
• I find it helpful to keep all of my photos, since even the “mistakes” could turn out to be the only photo of something important, or a “happy accident” that is good in its own way.
• Can you really determine which photos are good or bad by looking at your camera’s tiny screen? It’s much better to transfer them all to the computer, then decide what to keep.

4. Don’t delete photos at all

For that matter, why delete photos at all? I keep every photo I take with my digital cameras: the great shots, the out-of-focus shots, the mistakes, the duplicates, everything. Even the bad ones are useful years later for documenting my vacations and remembering what I saw, for seeing how my photographic technique has improved, or for seeing whether a camera is working as well as it used to. This also ensures that I never delete the wrong photo. If there’s a gap in the numbering on my original photo files, I know something’s missing.

If you don’t have room for all of your photos on your hard drive, remember that hard drives are cheap. You can also archive the old ones to CD or DVD media.

5. Keep a Backup or two

Did I mention that hard drives are cheap? I recommend keeping two copies of all of your original photos at all times. I have a daily backup script that copies the new files to an external drive. Be sure to use a separate drive or another computer as your backup, to avoid losing photos in a drive crash.

If you want to guarantee you won’t lose photos, you should also have an off-site backup—use an online backup service, upload them to a server, or just drop off a few DVD-ROMs at a friend’s house. That way your photos are protected even if you have a house fire or other disaster.

6. Use generic photo formats

Most cameras store images in the standard JPEG format, which should be easily readable for many years. However, higher-end cameras usually have a RAW format option. While raw images are great for post-processing and often beat JPEG in quality, keep in mind that all raw formats are proprietary, and you may have trouble opening these files 10 years from now. It’s best to save a standard JPEG or TIFF version of each photo, even if you use RAW. Some cameras can save a JPEG file along with the RAW file, giving you the best of both worlds.

• Tip: If you are serious about your photography and insist on using RAW format, keep a backup copy of the software you use to process the files. You might need to install it on an antique PC 10 years from now to access an old photo.

7. Don’t edit original photos

If you use a photo, you’ll often resize, crop, or otherwise process it. This is fine, but the first thing you should do when editing a photo is save it to a new file. Keep the original, unprocessed, full-resolution file along with your edited version. This will make it easier to use the photo for a different purpose later, and it also avoids the costly mistake of overwriting a photo with a messed-up version. Back up the edited version too.

• Tip: Unless you’re very careful and use special software, overwriting a photo will erase the EXIF data that the camera stored with the photo. This is your record of the date and time the picture was taken and the camera settings used.

8. Don’t trust someone else with your photos

Online photo sharing sites like Flickr are great for sharing photos, but avoid the temptation to use them for storing photos. Don’t trust an online service with the only copy of your photos, or even the backup copy.

Online services might go out of business, and they don’t guarantee that your data will be safe—especially if you forget to pay the bill. They also almost always process the photo (resizing, etc.) when you upload it. Use these services to share pictures, but don’t expect them to last forever there.

9. Test and maintain your backup files

A backup copy is no good if it doesn’t work, or if you lose access to it. Here are a few tips for making sure your backups will back you up:

• Take a look at your backup files regularly, and make sure you can load a few photos.
• If you back up to a hard disk, check the disk for errors regularly.
• If you back up to CD-R or DVD-R, use quality backup media.
• Test CD or DVD backups every month or two.
• Once every year or two, copy CD or DVD backups to brand new discs. Media has a lifespan potentially as low as 5 years.
• If you get a new computer, be sure to move the photos from your old computer, and make sure you still have two copies.
• If CD or DVD formats are going away in favor of some kind of new Super Blue-HD discs, copy your files to the new media as soon as it’s practical.

10. Label, organize, and sort your photos

If you follow the above rules for 20 years, you’ll end up with thousands of great photos—and now you have a different problem. Finding a few pictures of “that one time we went to Yellowstone” could be virtually impossible when you have thousands of photos stored in a disorganized mess of folders.

At the very least, do what I do: store each batch of photos in a separate folder with a descriptive name beginning with the date. Here are some examples:

• 2006-05-10 Yellowstone Park
• 2006-08-22 Testing new Camera
• 2006-09-01 Elvis sighting at Caesar’s Palace
• 2006-12-26 Opening Christmas presents

I avoid renaming the photo files, since I consider them my “negatives” and want a complete record of the pictures I’ve taken. Instead, I store them in folders like the above, then group those into larger folders for each year. This makes it easy to find particular photos, and the pictures are in convenient groups for archiving to DVD-ROMs every few months.

You may even want to move the best photos (or the ones you’ve chosen to print) into a separate folder within each folder, especially if you’re like me and you have more “misses” than “hits”.

If you want to go one step further, you can catalog your photos with a program like ACDSee, which lets you store a title, description, keywords, and rating for every photo. That would make it even easier to find what you’re looking for, if you can find the time to label and rate each picture.

The photographer’s worst nightmare: being hauled out from behind the lens and forced to stand in front of a camera.

Why must people photograph us? Yes, photographers are adorable, and yes, we have unparalleled style. But we are shy, and we prefer to hide behind our cameras like frightened woodland creatures behind large trees.

Still, people do insist on taking our pictures. So, what to do when you can’t avoid being photographed? Stand tall and follow our tips for instant photogenicity.

There are approximately gazillion tricks, tips and gimmicks that are supposed to make you look great when the shutter clicks. Having combed through most of those, we’ve condensed it to the ones that actually work.

1. Dress Nice

If you know you’re going to be photographed, don’t wear horizontal stripes or crazy patterns. Opt for neutral colors over bright ones unless you are one hundred percent certain that color looks great on you.

2. Check the Mirror

Do a last-minute check of your face: cover up any pimples, put drops in your eyes if they’re red, and make sure you don’t have food in your teeth.

3. Don’t Shine

If you’ve been sweating or if your face is greasy, make sure to wipe your face. Use oil-blotting papers if you wear makeup, or blot with a slightly damp paper towel.

In a pinch, wipe your face with your sleeve before venturing in front of the camera.

4. Stand Up Right

Slouching makes you look nonchalant, but it also makes you look short and/or dumpy.

Place one foot behind the other and lean back just a little bit. You’ll still look relaxed, but you’ll also look tall.

5. Twist It Up

Stand facing slightly away from the camera, and then twist at the waist to face the camera. Make it subtle- if you overdo it you’ll look like a stray from a beauty pageant.

6. Stretch Your Neck

Turn your head slightly away from the camera, extend your neck, then tilt your head down. Your face will look thinner and you won’t have a double chin.

7. Flee the Flash

Avoid the unforgiving bare flash at all costs. If you can’t get around it, search your pockets for a translucent candy or gum wrapper and put it over the flash to diffuse it.

8. Choose Your Light

If you can choose when and where you’ll be photographed, pick an outdoor shoot in the morning or late afternoon. The light is more flattering at those times.

If you have to be photographed in the middle of the day, stand in the shade.

9. Watch Where You Stand

An interesting background will make you look more interesting too. Choose a pretty outdoor scene to stand in front of, or look for a wall with interesting texture or colors. Avoid standing in front of plain or drab backgrounds.

Of course, if you can’t find a pretty location, you can always stand next to someone ugly. You’ll look great by comparison. (Just kidding. Or are we?)

10. Meditate for a Moment

Ask the photographer to count to three before taking the picture. Close your eyes and breathe in. Then, just before the shutter clicks, breathe out, open your eyes and smile. Your face will look relaxed and your smile will be real.

An author photo printed on a book tells you a lot about the author. It makes an immediate impact on the mind of the reader. What things should you keep in mind?

1. Firstly, let us prepare our general attitude towards portraiture

Remember that how you appear to your readers is fundamentally unimportant and has no impact on sales or your profile. Serious writers don’t do portraits. Those great photos of Auden, Beckett, Carver, Donaghy, Eliot, Hughes, Isherwood, well, those great photos did nothing to help us remember these writers, nothing at all. Put them in a gallery and we’d be lost. ‘Who are all these people?’ we’d say. ‘They sure don’t look like famous writers.’ So let’s not worry about getting any decent photos, unless our publisher forces us to do it. Then we can always moan loads about how facile it is. Or talk about commodification. It’s plainly a capitalist conspiracy focusing on face time. Readers just don’t respond to images of authors. We all know this.

2. Okay, okay, just for a moment

think about all the readers, booksellers, publicists, literary agents, radio presenters and news anchors, editors, journalists, teachers, librarians, festival directors, activists, students, translators, Web designers, pamphlet and catalogue designers, arts administrators, writing school programme managers, power-broking residency managers in Santa Fe, the academics, think about them and realize how unimportant your image is to them. It’s all about the writing, isn’t it? Good books shine through, after all. Just look how easy it is to sell them everywhere. 

3. If you absolutely have to use an author photo

it’s best to start with a passport photo. The ones you had done for Mexico City in 1983. The ones where you really do look like an iguana from that angle. Alternatively, choose the ones with the black shadow from the flash on the kitchen tiles. The ones where your eye hangs down like that. The ones where the low October sun is reflecting off your sweating forehead, enough to bleach out your remaining features and make you look like a polyp or giant gland.

4. Do remember, whilst pulling together your photos, to make sure you include those you especially don’t want your publisher to use

That way, when they do select them, you can object and have them do the work all over again. Doing the same job twice always brings twice the pleasure.

5. If the passport photos are unavailable, wedding snaps make great author photos, especially where you feature in the background in a crowd of revelers dancing the conga

Or shots at an office party, where Gwen had her jacquard tights on and you have your arm around her thighs. That photo of you doing a reading is a good one, the one where we can see a slither of your face peeping around the head of that Goth in the foreground. Try and get a blurred shot if you can. Or one where the camera is focused on the trout and bananas on the trestle table, and you’re bending down eating blancmange. Groups shots are always best, ones over dinner where the turkey is sagging in its house of bones and we can see you tipped sideways on the sofa beneath the decorations and someone’s arm stretched out obscuring your mouth.

6. If you have photos in dramatic places, always grab the ones where you are visible as a speck beside a tree, shaded before a mighty gorge

Or where the dustbowl is coughing up a lake of sand by that bus and you are in that bus, looking out of the back window, smiling between two satchels. External shots where the sun casts shadows so perfect your face looks like a ligature stood behind that lamppost with those 43 other hill walkers, that one is a killer. Find the ones of you pointing to something in the middle distance, like a boat trip up some lake of mud where everything is obscured except your sombrero. Shots by the pool with a rubber ring where you look cool in shades under the brolly, those ones are excellent. All family photos are generally good.

7. If none of the photos you keep in your dressing table or use as coasters for mugs of coffee are of any use, then it’s time to consider getting some shots taken

Bother. First off, ask the kids. Get your digital camera, or mobile phone, whichever has the lowest mega pixel rate, and take some snaps under the stairs, or in the wood shed. Grin in a few of them. Don’t brush your hair or assess your appearance in any way (this can distract you from getting the right feel). Wear the sleeveless cardigan you’ve kept since 1972. Try to look forlorn, or cross, or let your mouth hang open as if you have had a severe accident whilst cooking the potatoes. Take lots of images that are all the same so as to provide absolutely no choice when sending the images through to your publisher. Above all, don’t plan the shots or get any professional help or advice. Given the length of time it has taken you to write the book and find a publisher, don’t spend longer than 5 minutes of creative time considering this task. Do your writing no favors at all. Take note that spontaneous photos by the gladioli or stood by the airing cupboard nearly always give rise to truly memorable images of lasting historical value. We’ll all be studying them in 2090.

8. Then spend a little more time thinking about what kind of images your publisher asked for

If they need high resolution images, make sure you send them 72 dpi thumbnails, these always render well when used at full page height for that article on your latest volume in the New York Review of Books, in fact, even though the pixilation makes it look like your head is made from Duplo, this oddly adds to the impression that you are a new central figure of the literary establishment. Let’s get down to some more nitty gritty.

9. The Salt guidelines in their author questionnaire say take some landscape as opposed to portrait format images for their Web site

Don’t bother to check what other writers have done and try to better them, in fact, don’t pay any attention to ‘landscape format’ —instructions are for people who are just over serious about all this marketing stuff. Instead take photos of yourself in an actual landscape, leaves and trees, make sure you’re in the centre of the image, cut off below the waist with leagues and leagues of sky and foliage above you. If you’re in the foreground, make sure that the camera is focused on the far distance, that fencepost for example, or that heifer drinking from the water butt. If you are in the background, behind the taxi rank on Dermot St, make sure that the camera is focused on the pretzel stand over here on the left. Make sure you’re always in the centre. Don’t use depth of field to add drama. Remember to avoid any composition in the photographs, stand as still as a cadaver and look tired and drained; readers will respond to these images well. Keep the black scarf up around your mouth. Pull the hat down around your ears. Hide all features except for your nose and finger tips. Don’t look out to the reader, as we all hate eye contact with people we’re trying to engage with.

10. If you are up against a deadline, draw things out and take your time. Make this the last thing you do

Make sure all marketing activity is the last thing you do. When you eventually come to do it, be hasty and indifferent in equal measure — run in to the garden before dinner and get some shots under the pear tree or behind a hedge. Try and make sure that the image has no visual interest and lacks any tension. Photography is all about light, so avoid directional lighting which may create a strong visual impression, choose harsh general lighting. Choose bare backgrounds, or something shockingly busy and distracting like a wall of bright gentlemen’s ties or socks. Don’t stand to the side, stand square on and in the middle of the shot. Wince. Pout. Slump. These are the main objectives. When you’ve done as much disservice to your writing life as you can find time for, select the shots which don’t fit the publisher’s Web site and send those through first. Send lots, they’ve asked for six but send at least twenty. Don’t consider them, and tell the publisher that you hate being photographed, this will reinforce why they chose your book to lose money on. Try to give a broadly negative impression of helping to create those right conditions to sell the book or promote yourself. Follow these ten steps and you’ll find everyone in sympathy with you and the entire book industry will fall into place and sell thousands of your title. You can always find people to back up your views on this visual stuff. If only you could remember what they looked like?